is on a staggered basis in that 10% is forgiven in the 1st year, 15% in the 2nd year, 20% in the 3rd year, 25% in the 4th year and the final 30% in the 5th year. This, to me, is one of the directions that Title VII needs to go. HRSA (Health Resources Service Administration) is the department in the government that awards grants for increasing access to health care. In the first year of this program, we have ten people who are going to become teachers of pediatric dentistry. My feeling is if we can do this for five years, we can effectively change the face of dental education in this country with a very small investment on the government's part. We get between $10 and $12 million a year. While that is a lot of money, that’s “budget dust” for Congress. They don't even miss it. It's just gone. We talk to the members of Congress and we talk to the staff people. And in all the time that I've been going to Washington, I've never had anyone tell me “no” when I asked them to help us take care of the children. Dr. Ed Gonzalez: That's great. Dr. Heber Simmons: It's been a great blessing. I have thor-oughly enjoyed going to Washington. I never thought that I would do something like this, but it is fun! I enjoy getting to meet the people. I've met a lot of people up here and when I see them on television, I say: “Oh, I know him or her”. I'm still a small-town boy at heart and I'm sort of impressed when I see these people. The people that I've talked with in Washington have, without exception, been nice. I've never had anyone tell me “no”. I've had some that wouldn't help as much as I wanted them to, but it's hard for them to say “no” when you ask them to help you take care of the children. Dr. Ed Gonzalez: Absolutely. Dr. Heber Simmons: I feel that we have a good product to sell and it's doing so much good. I tell the people in Washing-ton; "Congress ought to be waving a flag on top of the Capi-tol building saying: Look what we've done for the underprivi-leged children of this country without much expenditure'". And to me, that's the way government ought to spend our money. I laughingly tell them: "Look, if we can spend money on all these programs helping children all around the world, then we can certainly help our own because our own children are the future of our country”. Dr. Ed Gonzalez: Well, you're obviously a very good spokesman for the children of our country and we appreciate what you have done. $100 million is not pennies. It's a lot of money going to a good cause and you're right. I see a lot of underprivileged children myself and there is a great need out there. And I'm glad you're trying to address it. Dr. Heber Simmons: You're kind. I appreciate it. You know, Ed, one of my most interesting meetings I had was with Hillary Clinton when she was a Senator. We have some mutual friends and I was trying to talk to her about that. About halfway through our discussion, she just reached over, touched my arm and said, "What is the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry going to do with this money?" And I said: "The Academy doesn't get any of this money. Every penny of this money goes to help these programs that basically treat underprivileged children. That's what the training programs are doing. They need to have patients to work on, so to me, it's a self-feeding program that just benefits everybody”. Dr. Ed Gonzalez: That's great. You obviously have some good stories with a lot of important people up in the legislature. Dr. Heber Simmons: I don't know how important they were. I met with Ted Kennedy when he was alive. He and Thad Cochran were good personal friends before Ted died. It's funny, because when I go to Washington, I call all the members of Congress by their first name. I'm older than most of them, so I just call them by their first name and without exception, they all say: “I prefer first names also.” I met with Ted Kennedy once and we talked. It was on a Friday afternoon at 5:00. I never will forget. I walked in to see Kennedy and he was sitting behind his desk looking at some papers. I'm sure he was trying to see who was coming to speak with him. So, I said, "You know, Senator, you and I have a connection that you're not aware of." And he said, "Oh, what is that?" Because I always try to make a personal connection with each person. And I said: "Well, both of our wives are from Louisiana. Yours is from Crowley and mine is from Monroe." Well, that sort of peaked his interest. He came www.orthodontics.com Spring 2019 29
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society Spring 2019: Page 29
